Dansby Swanson doesn’t think he’s built to play football.
“But I can probably haul in a catch or two,” Swanson said.
The Chicago Cubs shortstop looked like a wide receiver while making a tremendous over-the-shoulder catch in shallow center field during a pivotal point in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs trailed by one run in the fourth. The Padres were threatening with runners on the corners and one out.
Cubs starter Matthew Boyd jammed Ryan O’Hearn with a 1-2 fastball. But it looked like the Padres designated hitter had done just enough to get it to land for a single. Swanson had other ideas. He sprinted back, made the over-the-shoulder grab and threw the ball to home plate to make sure the runner remained at third.
“Can’t let it drop,” Swanson said of his mindset during the play.
It reminded him of when he would drag his parents away from one of his siblings’ activities to make them toss flyballs over his head.
“So I had a little bit of practice with it,” Swanson said. “We’ll give them some credit for helping me make that play today.”
Padres manager Mike Shildt called it “probably the play of the game.”
“Thought O’Hearn had a good approach, got in on him a little bit, but stayed through it,” Shildt said. “Right off the bat, I thought it was going to fall in there, but Dansby got a nice drop step and went out and made what ended up being the play of the game.”
The Padres failed to score in the inning. The Cubs got on the board in the fifth with back-to-back solo home runs from Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly on the way to a 3-1 win.
Here are three more notes from Game 1.
1. Ryan O’Hearn might want to avoid hitting the ball Swanson’s way.
Swanson robbed O’Hearn earlier in the game, as well.
The Padres had a runner on third with no outs in the second inning. The Cubs brought the infield in and O’Hearn hit a rocket Swanson’s way. The shortstop made a diving stab, got up and fired to first for the out. Xander Bogaerts remained at third, where he would stay the rest of the inning.
“(The ball) just happened to kind of find me,” Swanson said. “But give credit to Boyd for keeping his composure and making pitches when he had to in those big moments and being able to limit them to that one run.”
2. Matthew Boyd worked out of trouble to keep the Cubs in the game early.
Boyd surrendered back-to-back doubles to begin the second inning as the Padres went ahead 1-0. But the lefty got O’Hearn to hit the grounder to Swanson for the first out. Gavin Sheets then popped out to third and Jake Cronenworth grounded out to Swanson to limit the damage to one run.
“The big thing for Matthew was that he made some huge pitches with a man on third base,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “The second inning to get out of that inning without another run scoring, nobody out, man on third, we made a great defensive play — a couple of great defensive plays to help that.
“But making those zeros after having a man on third and no outs (in the second), man on third, less than two outs (in the fourth), that was a real key.”
Boyd allowed one run on four hits with two strikeouts and one walk in 4 1/3 innings, giving way to the standout bullpen performance. The starter pointed to the defensive effort behind him.
“They were making great plays,” Boyd said. “That’s kind of our brand of baseball, and it gives you a ton of confidence when you’re out there as a pitcher just to fill it up and know that the guys back there, they’re going to do their thing.”
3. Carson Kelly had a day to remember.
In addition to helping the pitchers navigate through a tough Padres offense with his work behind the plate, Kelly put the Cubs ahead with his home run against starter Nick Pivetta in the fifth.
“You dream about those moments as a little kid — getting to the postseason and hitting the game-winning home run,” the catcher said. “Having it happen today is really an honor.”
Kelly worked a 2-2 count before hammering a 94 mph fastball high to left field. The ball found the seats to give the Cubs a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“The feeling running around the bases, you feel like you are on cloud nine because of how much this fan base cares for Cubs baseball,” Kelly said.